November and December 2010

We went to St. Louis along with Justin, Amy, Jed and Bretta in November for Oliver's blessing and Thanksgiving and took a trip up to Nauvoo. It was beautiful weather but rather blustery in this photo. It just nearly blew Larid's hair away. We had 50-60 degree temps there and at home there was a 3 day blizzard. Didn't miss that.

We had an evening of making "mice" from stemmed cherries, Hershey Kisses, Oreos, slivered almonds and a little chocolate. You can't make just one, you know, as Aubree and Emalee prove.

This is how many people came to our Christmas Brunch. Then there were all the little people without shoes on. Love, love, love it.

Here is our brunch group hoping everyone had a very Merry Christmas.

And finally, Jaren on his backhoe that Grandpa Robinson made for him for Christmas. His first comment was, "Can I take it home?" I think the smile says it all.

The Eighth Annual Sweet Retreat

These were the Sweet Retreat attendees this year. Isn't everyone just beautiful? It is such a great opportunity to keep close family ties. We missed all who could't come but we will meet again next year.

Chelsea is giving a bow demonstration while Barbara is sewing duckies and ML and Patsy are enjoying a delicious snack.

Speaking of snacks.... Rita gave us a demonstration on candy making and left us with lots of samples. They were DELICIOUS!! Not to mention the salsa, bean dip, fruit and veggies.

And.... Rita after the candy demo. Ashley, Jessica and Rox are making pillows that Jocelyn taught us to do.

And this would be the wood craft section consisting of Chelsea, Valerie, Kenadee and Tatum. We had a wonderful time and appreciate all who come to make the retreat successful.

Busy September

While at Marc and Shannon's we went to Echarts farm and picked apples. They made a great apple tart.

Our wagon ride to the orchard.

The reason for my trip to St. Louis was to meet our #16 grandchild and Marc and Shannon's fourth son, Oliver. We snuggled alot.

I watched Brett and Hannah's kiddos for a week while they went on a cruise and during that time Marc and Harry came home for Grandpa Robinson's funeral so we had a lot of activity going on.

These photos show the view that we had of the INL desert fire in July

And, another project. I removed the wallpaper in the utility room in preparation to get a cutting table aka ML's over-sized-new-kitchen island. She will be getting a smaller one and I will take possession of the original. Chelsea instructed me to change the carpet first (it is the only carpet that has never been replaced since we built our home) and that also necessitates paint. Somehow things just get out of control. It will be nice to have a spot to store my quilting tools and projects.

Our garden has grown quite well this summer, compared to others we have seen. I think it is due to Jake's fertilizer that we applied this spring.

Occasionally, I get the urge to sew some clothes so I made the girls some summer skirts.

I didn't mean to post 2 pictures of my bike but it appears that I did. Pretty nice, huh? Thank you to all who contributed to the bike fund for my birthday.

I meant to post the photo that dad took of me riding the bike. He got a photo of ME and not the bike so I stopped for this photo moment. I guess he just couldn't focus in because I was going so fast.

We had Brett and Hannah's kids last weekend while they were in Boise and this is how they arrived at home every night. Guess Grandma and Grandpa were just too much for them!


We had a western-themed Lusk Family Reunion yesterday and had more family there than we expected - a nice surprise. We all got a hat, a sheriff badge, a neckerchief and some got a mustache. We ate barbequed pork and beef sandwiches from Glenwoods in IF and had a program from the Fall River Boys who sang western songs and did cowboy poetry. It really was a fun time. I'm sorry we didn't have more of our family there but plan to come in 2 years.

Cousins Weekend

The first weekend of May, I met Patsy in Brigham City so we could visit with some of our cousins and gather more family history information to go in the books that Patsy has been working on for four years! Our cousin Elaine, (Aunt May's daughter) and her husband Bliss Law were gracious and let us stay with them in Brigham City then we traveled to Wellsville and Smithfield to visit other cousins, Orlin and Launa. We had so much fun visiting with them and renewing our family ties. I think we have a terrific family.

Richard surprised us by being at Launa and Royce's home to help with their parent's histories, (Uncle Rupert and Aunt Barbara).

The keepsakes that our cousins showed us brought back a little nostalgia.
Launa had this picture of my grandparents, Hettie May Dredge and Alma Hyrum Lusk.

I remember that Grandma Lusk always had milk in this little corn cob pitcher.

And this is Grandma and Grandpa Lusk's clock. It has a wonderful, deep chime.

There you go. Now you have seen a few of my childhood memories.

May Updates: The Pinning

Chelsea had her pinning ceremony on May 14th at CSI. (WHEW!) This is a photo after she received her pin with a few of her classmates.

The actual pinning procedure (nurse language).

Justin giving Chelsea the fingers-in-the-ears procedure for the congratulatory ceremony.

The men in Chelsea's life who hope to have a little more quality time with her now that she has passed this milestone. (WHEW again!)

Suspicious Signs of Spring

For those of you who do not live in our neck of the woods, this is the view out our front window. Every day we see a little more ground and that is bitter/sweet. Then it is yard work.

And..... it appears that Dad has been out and about on his 4-wheeler. I wonder just what it is that he does while I am off to work!

He said that he was working on some wheels. Obviously!!

This is just a little Christmas fun with lots of kids on Christmas morning.

When we were at Justin and Amy's in November, Bretta wanted Grandpa to have a royal welcomeConn is sporting his two tone greeen dinosaur Halloween costume. Notice the accent of spikes down the head and back. It appears that his momma was not afraid of him at all.

I just thought that this view was gorgeous. I spotted it about a mile away from Justin and Amy's last November.

This really is not my quilt- it is LuJeans. However, most in my sewing group made one just like it and I am happy to report that my top is done and hanging in the closet-of-unquilted-tops since last Thursday. We started them last May and it is such a happy quilt and called Summer at Moms - a nice title for a nice quilt. The applique was very time consuming for me, but a new learning experience.

Instead of sewing last Wednesday, seven of us went on a quilt shop road trip and visited 4 quilt shops from Twin Falls to Pocatello. Chelsea met us in Rupert and snapped this photo for us. Left to right: Chris, Sheri, Louise, Susan, me, LuJean and Sonja. We had a fun, fun day.

"If you won't look at me, I won't look at you." The photo says it all.

Prior to Britnee's birth, Valerie had the perfect shelf for her plate of fudge!

I just thought that this was the cutest photo of Kyle, Miriam and Adney. This was the morning of the Christmas Brunch at our house. Aren't they adorable?

Another Christmas Brunch photo showing Jaci and Brook. Notice the plate in front of them with empty grapefruit halves? Brook had a record 5 of them. Obviously, she loves grapefruit!